A “flash crowd” event occurs in a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) network when a large number of endpoints simultaneously attempt to initiate communication sessions from within a given geographic area. Such events may happen, for example, in response to a natural disaster, a man-made disaster, and/or a significant news event. In some instances, a flash crowd event can overwhelm the signaling and/or protocol processing capabilities of all or a portion of the VoIP network leading to, for example, an inability to establish communication sessions from and/or to emergency response locations, such as hospitals, police stations and/or fire stations.